Closing the Chapter
by Master-Magician
Summary: When Nathaniel was finally ready to leave, Piper knew a chapter of his life was coming to a close. But a new one had already been opened at the same time. One that Piper would see through to its end, til her final breath.


**An idea I had inspired by the companion comments when you bring them to your husband/wife's body back in vault 111. Takes place after the main quest so spoilers ahead.**

 **Enjoy.**

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"So Blue, where we headin'?"

Piper was again met with silence. It was the second time she had asked that same question since the pair had left the fortified settlement of Sanctuary.

Come to think of it, Nathaniel hadn't said a word since their departure, or before that. In truth, if Piper hadn't of been with him at the time the man would have been taking this hike by himself.

The first idea Piper had was that her stupid boyfriend was going on some big dangerous mission that he didn't want to endanger anyone else by bringing them along. It had taken a lot of work, but Piper and the others were able to nip that nasty habit in the bud before Nathaniel got himself killed. Nowadays he took at least one his friends on most missions, even the ones that didn't require violence. Friendly companionship could be worth more than all the caps in the wasteland.

It was definitely not anything that involved much danger. Between trying to sneak off by himself and the fact that Nathaniel left his beloved rifle behind in Sanctuary, was more than enough to tell Piper he wasn't going far or anywhere threatening. Piper had left her own primary weapon behind as well but like Nathaniel had retained her sidearm just in case.

At least Piper assumed he had been trying to sneak away. If that were the case, he hadn't exactly been very subtle about it. Plus he didn't tell Piper to go away when she joined him.

While his ignoring her like this was odd, it wasn't what had Piper so unnerved. The cold shoulder was part of it yes, Nathaniel always had a warm smile for her, a hug, or even a teasing remark. No, what was freaking Piper out was the hollow far off look in the man's eyes. To see the always cheerful and happy Nathaniel so unhinged was more disturbing than anything Piper had experienced.

There were only two times Piper had seen Nathaniel look remotely this bad. The first was when he discovered the true fate of Shawn within the Institute. The second was a botched mission to rescue a young woman kidnapped by raiders. After the condition he and Piper found her remains in... a rabid yao guai would have shown more mercy than Nathaniel did that day.

Needless to say, Piper was all sunshine and smiles on the outside but staving off an internal panic attack inside.

Piper had promised Nathaniel a long time ago she was going to stick by him no matter what happened or what they had to face down. Be it a fight, delving into old pre-war ruins, or the occasional night out on the town in Diamond City, it didn't matter. Whatever it was, they would do it together.

But doing that was kinda a bitch when she didn't know what the problem was! It was unlike Nathaniel not to be open with her when something came up. Piper was always the first one he came to.

Turned out, their destination hadn't been that far at all. They stopped at the top of the hill overlooking Sanctuary where Nathaniel ascended some stairs into a small outbuilding. Piper could see him hit some kind of button but came back out before she could follow him up. Instead she followed his lead when he moved over to a large metal circle on the hilltop.

Piper nearly jumped out of her skin when the metal beneath her shifted and began lowering with a loud screech of grinding metal.

All the clues were here in front of her, and Piper was good at assembling things to find a story. This close to Sanctuary, the words 'Vault-Tec' on some of the junk topside, the underground secret entrance. All of it pointed to a single overriding thing. The place that allowed the best thing to ever happen to Piper to come into her life. The place that all but destroyed Nathaniel's life, and took almost everything from him.

Vault 111.

The further down the platform descended, the more Piper's heart sank to her feet. She had an unsettling feeling she knew exactly what they were here for. No amount of hoping she was wrong was going to change it though.

Even when the lift stopped at the bottom of the shaft, Nathaniel had yet to make any change. His eyes looked on ahead in a thousand yard stare. Piper wanted desperately to say something, but she couldn't. She was afraid to make a sound or even touch him.

Nathaniel hadn't hesitated to leave the elevator, but Piper was frozen in place for a moment. Her mere presence here made Piper feel like she was defiling it somehow. Just by being there, Piper was violating the hallowed tomb of Nathaniel's old life. She had no business being here.

In the end, Piper's feelings for Nathaniel were stronger than her unease. A swift sprint later and she had caught back up with him.

Piper had somewhat expected the vault to be a bit chilly, cryosleep being involved and all that. But this was a whole new level of cold Piper had never felt. Not even winters in the commonwealth were this frigid. Apart from occasionally rubbing her arms through her thin leather jacket, Piper pushed the thoughts of cold from her mind.

It wasn't long before the silence started to get to Piper. As if the place didn't feel enough like some ancient pre-war mausoleum. Every quiet thump of Piper and Nathaniel's boots seemed to echo through the halls. Even the pair breathing was loud enough to be noticed.

In The Commonwealth, quiet was a bad thing. Quiet meant something was lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims. The deeper into the vault they traveled, the more Piper felt like something was going to attack them.

While her pistol was holstered, Piper's hand never left the weapon. The only reason she hadn't drawn it was because Nathaniel seemed so unafraid of their surroundings. But that could have just been because he was so distracted by whatever haunted him so deeply. No matter what the reason was, Piper was ready for an ambush, if not to protect herself, then to protect the man she loved from harm.

If Piper was disturbed by just the silence, she was wholly unready for when she met the former residents of Sanctuary.

Row upon row of metal boxes lined the room like some twisted freak show. Piper only realized people were in them when she just happened to glance into one of the window panels on the front of each box. It wasn't that there were people in them that really got to Piper, it was that they were all filled, every single one.

Only the occupants were all dead.

Each box was another person who was deceived into being led to what they thought was safety, only to find their salvation was in reality their doom. No one in The Commonwealth was a stranger to death, but the way these lives were all snuffed out still made Piper sick to her stomach.

Just as Piper knew he would, Nathaniel ignored all the cryopods while he soldiered on ahead. Only to stop at one in particular.

The story of Nathaniel's stay in the vault was not one he told often. But Piper had heard it enough times to recognize this was the place. A single cryopod was open whereas all the others were still sealed. The closed one across from the open one was Nathaniel's final goal.

A flip of a switch later, the pressure seals on the pod hissed open to reveal something that caught Piper off guard.

A young woman, definitely attractive by anyone's standards, lay in the pod. The first thing to catch Piper's eye was the crimson that stained the front of her Vault 111 suit. The fatal wound itself on her chest having been frozen long ago along with the blood within her veins. Piper was unsure how Nathaniel would have reacted to seeing her form were she not so well preserved.

As with death, injuries were nothing Piper hadn't seen, or experienced, thousands of times before. No, what was shocking to Piper was the resemblance she had with this woman. They were not identical, but could have easily passed as sisters to any onlookers. Naturally, Piper felt that it was this other woman who got all the good looks if they had been related.

Jealous of her boyfriend's dead ex-wife... Piper really had sunk to a new low.

A small treasonous voice within Piper's mind wondered if that was what Nathaniel saw in her. A visual almost-but-second-best-replacement for his dead wife. Who knows, maybe her personality was similar to Piper's own too. This voice was the same one that often questioned why someone so great as Nathaniel would even think to look twice at some nobody like herself. How could the best man Piper ever met love someone that so many thought unlovable?

Piper quashed that stupid voice with all the force of a super sledge. She knew Nathaniel better than that to think his reasons for falling for her were so petty. He was simply better than that. If Nathaniel said he cared for you for whatever reason, he meant every word of it.

Nathaniel stood before the still preserved body of his former wife for several long moments. Piper dared not touch or come near him while his thoughts ran on whatever track they took.

While Nathaniel was lost in his thoughts, Piper found her fingers absentmindedly twirling the gold band that occupied her left ring finger. The pair weren't married officially but his gift of the ring was a symbolic gesture more than anything.

Since the ring was never made for her finger, it didn't fit all that well. Just enough not to fall off but still loose. As a result, Piper had developed a habit to spin it around her finger when she thought too much or nerves started catching up. Which was quite often on both accounts when her Blue was concerned.

Piper would never forget the day Nathaniel gave it to her. She had almost lost him to a pack of feral ghouls and had a minor break down because she thought he was dead. In Nathaniel's words, "in case we get separated again, something to hold onto til we meet back up". Piper had yet to take the ring off since.

Gold rings like theirs were rare in the commonwealth. The yellow metal could be found in a few places, like the pocket watches they sometimes came across, but the knowledge of how to make decent quality rings out of it was mostly lost. Not to mention a luxury in a world where such things were ignored in favor of continued survival. Making theirs surprisingly valuable, but Piper didn't care in the least. The thing could have been made out of scrap plastic and it would still be one of Piper's most treasured possessions.

Being here in the presence of Nora, that was her name Piper now remembered, she felt even more out of place than she did before. Piper had no right to be in the presence of this woman that Nathaniel once loved enough to marry. This was something deeply personal for Nathaniel and Piper was intruding. Part of Piper told her she needed to leave but her worry for Nathaniel had her rooted to the spot.

Not to mention the guilt that Piper was at least partially glad Nora was no longer among the living. Were she still alive, Nathaniel wouldn't have ever seen anything in Piper. Such was the devotion Piper felt so endearing. Being happy Nora was gone disgusted Piper to her very core but there was no denying it to her own mind.

Piper was unable to tell how long they stood there in the depths of the vault staring at Nora's body. But eventually, Nathaniel stepped forward and gently lifted the frozen corpse into his arms. Careful not to jostle Nora too much, Nathaniel turned to leave with Piper close at his heels.

The walk back to the elevator was a somber one. Nathaniel's face remained unreadable, but Piper desperately wanted to reach out to him. To remind him he wasn't alone at the very least but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

As they stepped onto the platform, Piper took one last look at Vault 111. She knew buildings couldn't feel, but right now all she wanted was to destroy this vault. To make it suffer for all the pain it caused the man she loved. Even thought it brought him to her, it wasn't worth all the hell Nathaniel was put through in the process. Even if losing him would break her, Piper would take it all back to spare Nathaniel such agony. To give him the happy life he truly deserved.

Despite being unsure what Nathaniel planned to do with his ex-wife's remains, Piper followed his lead as she always did. Unlike normal, she kept all comments and wisecracks to herself. Piper had never been part of one, but somehow she knew this was what a funeral procession was like.

Nathaniel's path led them back to Sanctuary but through one of the back entrances. Conveniently, one that was not guarded at the moment by anything except a few sentry turrets. Once back in the settlement, Nathaniel took the back passageways rather than go down the main street.

Their last stop was the house Nathaniel and Nora once shared with their infant son before the war. It still belonged to him, but the only one who really spent much time there was Codsworth. Behind the structure was a single hole already dug. Perfect size for the grave of a young woman like Nora.

Laying next to the unfilled grave was a somewhat clean sheet already spread out. Piper stood back and watched as Nathaniel wrapped the body up in the fabric.

All the while Piper couldn't shake the unease felt at being here for this. It wasn't lost on her that no one else was present for Nora's funeral. No Codsworth surprisingly, not even their dear friend Nick Valentine. Had Piper not caught him leaving Sanctuary, she wouldn't even be here herself.

For how long had Nathaniel been planning this? They had only been in Sanctuary for a short time, and most of that Piper was with him. It had to of been weeks ago the grave was dug.

Once the body was lain down to its eternal rest, Nathaniel begun to fill the hole back in. Watching him do this alone was the last straw Piper could take. Her man was hurting, and she would be damned if she didn't do something.

A quick glance around revealed another shovel resting against the wall of the house. Having decided the time for hesitation was long past, Piper took up the tool to help.

Piper didn't look up from her work, not even when Nathaniel paused for a moment. At first Piper thought he might say something, and she was ready for it. She was even prepared to be screamed at for forcibly inserting herself in such a private affair.

But Nathaniel said nothing. His respite lasted only a few moments before he returned to the task at hand.

Between the two of them, the hole was filled much quicker than it would have been had Nathaniel done it alone. Once done, Piper drove her shovel into the dirt off to the side and took her customary position at Nathaniel's side.

It occurred to Piper then that you're supposed to say something right about now. But not having known the woman she helped bury, Piper was for one of the few times in her life speechless.

Nathaniel seemed equally lost, his gaze so set on the fresh grave that Piper wasn't sure why the dirt hadn't been set ablaze.

Once more throwing caution to the wind, Piper moved slightly closer. Taking his hand in hers, Piper laced her fingers together with his while wrapping her spare arm around his effectively hugging the limb to her chest. Resting her cheek on the rough texture of Nathaniel's shoulder armor, Piper steeled herself for his rebuke.

"Thank you." Instead of being pushed away, Nathaniel spoke his first words since they left Sanctuary earlier. Not only that, he tilted his head to lean against her own.

"It's okay Blue." Piper whispered in response along with a squeeze of the hand. Both acknowledging his thanks and to reassure him.

There were no words that could be said, Piper understood that now. Like much of Nathaniel's old life, Nora was a part of a different world. One of peace, a safer and more pleasant world that Nathaniel could never return to.

Nathaniel's current world was one of radiation, raiders, and vicious monsters looking to make a meal out of you. Along with a certain nosy and pushy reporter that would be with him through thick and thin.

That was what the significance was for this funeral, it went much farther beyond just burying a dead spouse. With Shawn gone, Nora was the last real part of Nathaniel's pre-war life that hadn't been resolved.

When Nathaniel was finally ready to leave, Piper knew a chapter of his life was coming to a close. But a new one had already been opened at the same time. One that Piper would see through to its end, til her final breath.

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 **I thought I was going to have trouble making a high enough word count, go figure. Let me know what you all think, I think I'm finally getting my inspiration back. I may have some ideas for other stories for Fallout.**


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